The Subtle Art of Not Giving a #@%!

I have not read the book so I don't have much to compare it to, but the film felt more of a speaker making a motivational speech than a documentary. The entire documentary was the author talking about his personal experiences, which didn't resonate with me in any way. I just didn't "give a f*#!" about his own stories so it seemed a little pretentious to me that he was making us listen to all these very basic stories from his past. I did like the in between of talking about entitlement and taking responsibility, but it would have been nice to also hear from professionals to hear their take on it.

Manson tries to convey to us practical wisdom from his life and the modern era that is controversial and confusing.

His narrative is one of first world drama where he discovers himself. It's okay, but not very well thought out or scientifically backed. I think one would do much better watching an Alain de Botton TED Talk.

True some ideas are better placed in a motion picture narrative. Here the Director has used a mixture of 1980s BBC clips and B-grade acting scenes. It just hasn't cut the mustard for this critical reviewer.

For a better experience I'd suggest 'Ravi Patel's Pursuit of Happiness' (2020)

I've been a big fan of Mark since he first started putting out his email which feels like over ten years ago?

I REALLY liked the book, and still think it is excellent.

This however was not so good.

It didn't feel right, didn't flow, wasn't especially interesting, I'm not sure how they got it so wrong to be honest?

I turned it off before the end, as it was borderline painful to watch at times.

It didn't feel like Mark's work, so I can only assume he didn't have that much input or get final approval?

I'd recommend spending your time with the audio book rather than watching this, you will get a LOT more out of it.

It's always so easy for people like Mark to tell us the how and why and what we should do to live a better life when they have $14,000,000 in their back pocket.

Seriously, his ideas aren't new, they're just old ideas repackaged. If you have t figured out how to be a good person before you watch this, this film ain't gonna help. If you think your a pretty good and kind person before seeing this film, it'll just come off as sanctimonious nonsense.

Listen to the audio book, as this certainly is a case of the book being better than the movie.

And the 3 stars are for Disappointment Panda. He's the one thing that kept me engaged.

I didn't want to give this a bad review.

In 2019, I was going through one of the hardest times in my life and reading The Subtle Art was one of the few things that really helped me come to terms and .

I will say that the film does do well to carry all of the witty cynicisms over from the book,. And I can hand pick a few a new additions I did enjoy that do stop this from going lower than a 3/10.

That said, without enough focus on the reasons and purposes for us hearing these anecdotes, it just becomes a disorganised mess that, if you've not read the book, just sounds like someone saying "you're not special" without the "but that's okay" to follow it up with.

The 'self help' part of this 'counter intuitive self help documentary' was heavily glossed over and massively lost a lot of the appeal that caused the books warranted success. Maybe it's just that the genre doesn't translate successfully into this media, but overall, very disappointed.

My advise to anyone reading this review; pop on the audiobook and watch a 10 hour YouTube video of cats or something. You'll have a much better experience,